REASONS FOR FAILURE OF AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCES

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the reasons for the inadequacy of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), formed by the multinational military force under the command of NATO. For this purpose, the security situation in Afghanistan in the last twenty years has been examined in three periods. The first period is International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations from 2001 to 2010. During this period, ISAF took on the task of both ensuring national security and establishing the ANSF. The second period is the “transition” period between 2011 and 2014, in which security responsibility is transferred. The last period is when ANSF assumed the responsibility of the country's security. In order to understand the security and establishment/operation processes of the ANSF in all three periods, interviews were conducted with 28 officers (currently retired) assigned to the region by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). According to the results, ISAF could not stop the increasing attacks of the Taliban in the first period and could not seize the military initiative. The ANSF, which was formed in this period, entered the transition period before it could gain full operational competence due to a lack of training and equipment. Hearing that the United States of America (USA) started negotiations with the Taliban during the transition period was met with suspicion in the ANSF and negatively affected the operations. In the third period when the ANSF assumed security responsibility, the Taliban attacks continued to increase, and as a result, international forces withdrew from the country in September 2021, leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban. Other factors affecting the failure of the ANSF are the inability to set law and order in the country, the inability to prevent corruption, the lack of unity and solidarity among ethnic groups, and the lack of "national consciousness"